How To Prepare For Divorce

An Interview with Mark Smith, Denver Divorce Attorney

Divorce can be amicable or it can be messy. Either way, it is an emotional time for all involved, especially if there are children to consider.

Mark shares some of the most common problems each side has to process when making the decision to get a divorce. He covers the main issues of child custody, parenting time and decision making as well as division of marital assets. Smith also talks about the emotional aspect and the fears that are associated with divorce and how they can be overcome by choosing the right divorce attorney to handle your case.

Neil Howe:Hello and welcome to the show. This is your host, Neil Howe. And today my special guest is attorney Mark Smith with Smith and associates PC in Denver, Colorado. And he’s an attorney, a licensed to practice law in Colorado and he has been practicing in Colorado for the last 25 years. He focuses mainly on divorce and custody cases including matters including domestic violence. And he is also a parent with a seven year old son. Mark Smith. Welcome to the show.

Mark Smith:Hello Neil. Thank you for having me.

Neil Howe:You’re welcome. Well, 25 years is quite a long time to be doing anything but uh, be covered in divorce and custody cases. You have got to have seen a lot during that time. Uh, give us a little bit of your background and tell us how you got into this industry.

Mark Smith:Well, um, I was working in another industry as a paralegal and a wanted to explore the, that side of things in that aspect. So I elected to go to law school at night actually, and then um, stepped into practicing domestic, uh, while I was still a student to law school. I was handling divorce cases and restraining order cases now called protection order cases, but I developed a taste for, uh, this area of the industry and, and uh, liked it, responded well to it and just started doing it. I’ve been doing it for 25 years since

Neil Howe:well. Excellent. Congratulations on that. And is that 25 years where with your own company?

Mark Smith:Yes. Uh, I worked, worked initially with a few other lawyers and I have also sort of been working in close quarters in closely with another attorney for 25 years. Not In, not in formal partnership, but we’ve been very close colleagues and we’ve always been in the same office. So I have sort of a, a group of attorneys around me as well. But uh, also work with for that period of time.

Neil Howe:Hmm. Well, like I said, 25 years, he had cut to a scene, a lot of different cases with many different problems. But if you could break it down into the, the basic problems of all most devotee case, what would you say that

Mark Smith:they were? Well, most divorces, uh, involved children, not all obviously, but most divorces involved, uh, children and allocating their time and dividing the decision making and deciding how to parents are going to move forward to take care of their children after their marriage is dissolved. That’s generally a primary consideration in the divorce obviously. Uh, that includes things like parenting time. A lot of people think of that as visitation. We use the term parents and time in Colorado, uh, decision making where the children will live. In addition to that, obviously divorces also usually deal with division of assets, division of dads and support issues, child support and spousal support, which we call maintenance. Okay.

Neil Howe:Mm. So those are the main things. It’s obviously the children, uh, are the primary, uh, concern and their wellbeing, but then the, the money obviously is a massive burden for both parties is going through a divorce. Um, you know, let’s talk about the, the children first. Uh, what things do you have to consider in the case of

Mark Smith:divorce where children are involved? Well, you, you typically and generally have to address where they’re going to live. Um, whether one house or the other will be primary. Uh, in Colorado there’s a, there’s a strong movement and that’s, that’s existed for probably five or six years now towards a dividing the time, uh, for the children, between the two parents equally, uh, or, or ensuring that both parents have adequate time with the children if it isn’t equal. Um, um, there’s a strong recognition that, that children need both of their parents to be involved and that they’d benefit from that. So you have to sort of figure out not only where the children are going to live, but also how much time they will have with each parents. Uh, you have to decide how, uh, parents are going to make decisions for the children specifically on major issues like schooling, um, medical care and religion decisions.

Mark Smith:MMM. And then typically you also have to address the issue of how the children will be supported, how the parties are going to have to fund the cost of raising children because obviously they’re not cheap. So those are the issues that typically you have to deal with with the children. They’re always a sticky, wicked. Um, because it’s very difficult to, um, divide time he requires, interestingly enough, a lot of people have to become better parents after they get divorced because they have to find ways to work together to coparent as we call it. And it takes a lot of maturity and sometimes it takes people a bit of growing up to figure out how to put their children first and really wearing the love their children, um, and, and, and place their needs first.

Neil Howe:That is an interesting point because I imagine in many families, the wife is the primary caregiver. While, you know, the husband is going out and working, that’s, you know, not necessarily the case anymore. Uh, but how, how has that changed over the last few years where, you know, both parents seem to be working a lot more, but you know, they, they both require the time with the children. With the split.

Mark Smith:It’s absolutely accurate. You know, we grew up, you know, how old you are, but I’m, I’m 56. So, you know, as I grew up, it was a case where a lot of mothers stayed home and father’s work. But it has evolved now in this economy in this day and age more, more often. Most of the time both parents were. And so what has to happen is that both parents have to learn how to be a sole parents. And, and that’s a challenge. It’s a challenge for everybody. It’s not just for women. Um, I think that it also can be very much of a productive thing. I, I’ve seen a lot of fathers who did somewhat deflect a lot of the responsibilities for children to the wife during the marriage, but after they get divorced, they have to learn how to become sole parents themselves. And it’s, it, it is very rewarding.

Mark Smith:I mean, you know, to develop your own separate relationship with your child. This is a very rewarding experience, but it’s not easy. So that’s been a sort of a development, but it’s really nice to see. You see a lot of soul fathers, a lot of soul of mothers and they all have their own challenges and be the sole parenting. But, um, it’s, it’s been an interesting development and it’s, it’s, uh, nice to see there. There are some resources for people who to, to learn how to be a separate parents, sole parent. There’s a lot of divorce workshops and things, but it is a challenge for everyone.

Neil Howe:Right. Then, you know, like you were saying, that kind of makes them a kind to bill and makes them appreciates a somewhat what the other half, uh, was doing beforehand. Oh, I think so. Yeah.

Mark Smith:You’ve seen a lot of times in my business where people really didn’t know how, how good of a partner they had until the now, you know, solely trying to raise those children. But you know, everyone, everyone usually evolves to to do that. And I think it’s a good thing. I think the fathers and mothers both being actively involved never is a bad thing for the children.

Neil Howe:Right. So let’s talk about the, you know, both parents working here, uh, you know, in the past, or you know, this might be a misconception, but it’s that the father that was working mainly on if there was a divorce, uh, he would have to pay an extreme amount of child support to cover, uh, the raising of the kids and, you know, his ex wife. But with both parents working and bringing in, you know, a good salary, how does that change things with child support? Excuse me. With child support in particular,

Mark Smith:uh, the time can make a big impact on terms of how much support has to be paid in Colorado. Um, when a, when a parents, well, we used to consider a nonresidential parent for example, that was quite the father. But when a non residential parent has more than 25% of the overnights parenting time with the child, you start to see the child support being reduced because there’s an assumption that the nonresidential parent is, is, uh, shouldering more of the immediate costs and needs of the child. So that child support starts to be reduced. There’s a, an assessment that, that there’s probably a lot of overlap assuming that, you know, both parents are buying shoes, both parents buying clothes. So the calculations that we use to calculate child support or account for that, but as parents get closer and closer to 50, 50 in terms of parenting time, quite often you see the child support continue to be reduced.

Mark Smith:When you have a situation where there’s significant disparity between the incomes of the two parties, you will still see a child support order of one parent paying the other. Typically the parent that makes more money ends up paying the parent that likes, makes less money. But as you get closer and closer to that 50, 50 arrangement, um, that, that money does decrease. And of course, if you have two parties that make similar incomes and they have similar amounts of time with the children, and that’s when you get closest to parody where no one’s paying the other. And how close to these cases come to that 50, 50. Is that then ideal or ultimate, um, results for a divorce in the, the ideal result for the divorce? Really depends upon the family dynamic. Um, I think that most of the court’s, most of the judges, and we also have a lot of psychologists involved in the process and that’s probably been one of the reasons that we moved the process closer to being a 50, 50 kind of arrangement with full involvement of both the mother and the father.

Mark Smith:But it depends upon that family dynamic. Um, whether or not 50, 50 works in many, many cases, you see it going to something close to that. But it also can be one of those situations where you might have a party that has an employment that prevents him or her from being able to be a full participant in a 50, 50 parenting time arrangements. It also depends very much upon, um, the dynamic of how the children interact with parents. Um, if you’ve had, um, for example, if you have a divorce occurring where a child is navy 14, and that child has always lived primarily with the one parent at the house, you may not, it may not be a perfect arrangement for that child to have as much time up to 50, 50 with the other parent. It may just be an adjustment the child may not be responding well to.

Mark Smith:So it really depends upon how it all interacts and how, um, um, the children and the relationship between their parents and other factors such as employment. We do have a couple of experts we use in Colorado. One is called the child and family investigator, which often are either an attorney or a psychologist and they will investigate and make recommendations about what the right division is for the family. We also have another expert, we call it parental responsibilities evaluator. That’s typically psychologists. And if the PRA, as we call it, parental responsibilities evaluator quite often that’s a much more um, in depth investigation, um, with psychological testing and other assessments of the environment and collaterals to determine what the right choices for the family parenting plan. So those, those, um, resources exist for families and for the courts to figure out what the right dynamic, uh, and write a resolution of parenting time is for this.

Mark Smith:The parents in particularly the children, everything about parenting time is supposed to be oriented about what is in the children’s best interest. And you’ll hear that in divorce over and over and over again. The children’s best interest, the children’s best interest because we’re concerned really with what the right thing for them is as opposed to necessarily what the parents want. And so we have to be driven by that in the divorce industry. And that’s of course what hopefully these two experts help us with. But in some, um, you do see a lot of if the 50 parenting time plans, you see a lot of different types of arrangements to divide the week or to use a two week rotating schedule to divide the time. And, and you do see in a vast majority of cases, a division of close to 50, 50 or substantial time for both parents, for the children.

Mark Smith:Well that’s good. That’s nice to hear. Um, you know, what, what have I, if one of the parents has to move to different states and what are the considerations there? That’s a, that’s a significant problem. We call those removal cases. And of course they’re, they’re just heartbreaking because there isn’t a way to divide a child and therefore when one parent has to move, and quite often that does occur because of employment considerations. Um, for a lot of people, the end result is that unfortunately the children lose in, in both contexts, but one of the parents ends up having to have substantially less time with the children. Quite often what you end up seeing, what you have to have a decision whereby the children ended up with being with one parent or the other and they end up having to focus typically on a summertimes and on holidays, particularly division of Christmas.

Mark Smith:Uh, cause a lot of kids are out during this school for, you know, two or three weeks at Christmas. So those two large blocks of time, Christmas and summer are typically divided. Um, quite often the, the parent that does not have the children during the school year, we’ll have substantially larger bulk of the time during the summer. Sometimes I’ve seen it like for example, Wyoming’s real close to Colorado and sometimes you can make other arrangements, but typically when, when you know, you have one parent living in Colorado and load parents multiple states away, you have to work out that arrangement where the children are mostly with one parent and then spending their summers with the other. It’s heart rending though. There’s just no, there’s no perfect resolution in that context.

Neil Howe:And of course we’ve got the finances to deal with as well. Uh, you know, obviously children are, uh, the, the most important factor in a divorce, but you know, how each side is going to survive with the finances, whether it’s dividing of assets or debts. What do you look to consider and those circumstances. And, and of course that’s,

Mark Smith:that’s another challenging part of divorce. Typically what you’re looking at is divide what we call the marital assets, the assets that parties typically bring into a divorce or characterizes separate or premarital. And those are not subject to division, but the assets of the parties acquired during the divorce are subject to division as well as our, this, um, quite often, um, you’re seeing division of a home equity retirement plans, some investments, obviously people have cars and things. Um, typically, uh, courts are looking to divide assets based upon what we call equitable considerations or fairness. And for a lot of judges that starts with some sort of equal division or close to equal division, but they can, they can render in equal division of assets if it’s appropriate. Do the divorce case. Um, sometimes they will, um, divide assets to provide some greater division to one party or the other in order to offset the need for any kind of spousal support or assistance in that fashion.

Mark Smith:But that’s another, um, significant consideration is whether or not the parties have disparity levels of income, um, that support and warrants a spousal support as well. Spousal support we call maintenance that is a different than child support. Child support is specifically for the support and, and and terror the children and their needs. And then on top of child support, you can also have a division of income between parties where their incomes are so disparate that it warrants it where their standard of living during the marriage, uh, indicates that one party or the other needs assistance to try to maintain a level of standard of income. Um, and uh, the other major consideration is obviously the length of the marriage. If you have a two year marriage as opposed to a 20 year marriage, it’s a significantly different a consideration in terms of maintenance. Uh, typically with a shorter marriages, you don’t see any maintenance or a very short period of maintenance on a longer level of a marriage where there’s, you know, 15, 20 years and there’s significant disparity in the incomes. You’ll see a more substantial and longer maintenance order.

Neil Howe:Hmm. Uh, how about the standard of living and do both parties have to accept that the standard of living Maaco Diane, uh, during and after a divorce or kind of stay the same?

Mark Smith:Well, it’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s supposed to be one of the major considerations in terms of dividing, uh, incomes and deciding maintenance, spousal support. It’s obviously impossible to maintain a standard of living in a lot of instances because you suddenly have two households being supported by what was formerly a one household level of income. So you can’t ensure that the standard of living will be maintained. But the goal is to ensure that the standard of living is, is part of the consideration and dividing that so that one party doesn’t necessarily walk out of a longterm marriage with all of the income leaving the other party in poverty. This wouldn’t be fair or equitable in any consideration. So it is a major consideration, you know, and quite often you will have one party or the other that has a substantially greater level of income and you’ll have the other party.

Mark Smith:Uh, see the wife for example, who has given up a career, who has given up a lot of opportunities to support the other, the other spouses jobs. So these are considerations in terms of how the courts divide income to ensure that both parties are cared for it, but it’s, it, it is a challenging area. Um, um, we do finally have some formulas in Colorado that, uh, give courts of the best way to go about how to divide income. And, um, you have courts a guideline to do that, but yes, uh, uh, you know, you, you do try to maintain some similar level of standard of income living, but you can’t always guarantee that.

Neil Howe:Hmm. And how about that primary residence? Is that something that you try and maintain for stability or is it something that needs to be sold if there’s, you know, lots of equity in the home.

Mark Smith:Yeah, that’s a real thorny problem. And many divorces, the, the, uh, laws in Colorado call for the presumption, which is a legal term, says that the court’s supposed to go that direction unless there’s a reason not to go that direction. But there’s a presumption that the, the parent who’s going to be the primary residential parent of the children, if that’s how it turns out in favor of the primary residential parents having or retaining the marital residence for the benefit of the children. So there is that presumption quite often, especially as we go to 50, 50 plans or plans where the children’s spend substantial time with both parties, that becomes less of an issue because the children are going to essentially reside with both parents. So often what you see is, um, generally either one parent stays in the home and finds a way to refinance, um, or the home is sold. And it really, that can really be driven by the financial considerations because quite often a home that the parties could enjoy and, and retain as joint parties, they can no longer maintain us sole parties. So oftentimes that’s what drives the decision as much as anything. But yeah, there’s usually it’s a, it’s a refinance arrangement for one party to pay off the other party’s equitable interest or it’s a sale within a reasonable period of time after the decree is entered.

Neil Howe:Well, you talk about some of the most emotional experiences that people go through and obviously divorce has got to be one of them, but you know, moving haggis is also stressful thing as well. You know, what kind of emotions are people experiencing when they’re going through divorce? Like this mark?

Mark Smith:Oh, it, you know, it, it, it’s very heart rending and, and one of the things that I ended up doing as a divorce lawyer, quite often they call us counselors. And that’s probably not an ill founded title because oftentimes we’re trying to help people with the emotional difficulties of divorce just in general. A lot of people find that there are public assistance is helpful during the course because it is so emotionally damaging and difficult to cope with. And I’ve known people that have been in therapy for several years after the divorce. In order to have that, that assistance. But it is, it’s, you know, uh, having to figure out the most difficult is of course having to help your children through it because it’s so difficult for the little ones, but it’s also difficult to be in a longterm relationship and have to figure out how you’re going to live your life without that.

Mark Smith:Um, most people recover very, very quickly within a year or two. And quite often you’ll do, divorce itself is somewhat therapeutic, oddly enough, because it is finality. It is a way for people to finally say, okay, this is behind me. I can move forward. So finality of divorce, quite often it makes a big difference. In fact, sometimes the longer the divorce takes to litigate, the harder it is on people emotionally. So we have to help them through that. We have to help them not only with all the legal aspects, the financial aspects, but we also have to find a way to assist people with the emotional aspects. It’s not a small, it’s not a small task. And that is maybe one of the more rewarding aspects of helping people through divorces to know that you’ve helped people through a horrible time in their life. I think most of the lawyers I’ve known, um, have some aspect of that. There’s, there’s a significant challenge, but there’s also significant reward in helping people emotionally through this very difficult time in their life.

Neil Howe:Hmm. And what fears do they have the night prevent them from taking action on divorce? Cause I know there’s a lot of people that are living in an unhealthy relationship but maybe just too scared to step out and take action to make something happen and get some of that finality you’re talking about.

Mark Smith:Oh, you’re absolutely right. There’s a lot of people that stay in divorces because they are fearful of the unknown. But, but the fact of the matter is, is that quite often the, the problems that people go through in a, in a problematic marriage can be resolved with the divorce. As odd as that may sound quite often, for example, if two parents are fighting substantially in the marriage, the children will be aware of that. So a lot of times, um, as hard as divorce can be on children, there’s a lot of peace and calm that can be there for the children once they do get divorced. But I know that a lot of parents are reluctant to get divorced because they’re concerned about the impact on the children and, and you know, that’s a valid concern, but there’s also the value of, of children being raised in an environment where there isn’t a lot of hostility and a lot of anger as spouses.

Mark Smith:Um, quite often they’re very fearful of losing the income, losing the support, losing just that, the security of having someone in their life. But you know, most people whether divorce pretty well and they find that, that if their marriages as troubled as often they are to that that lead to a divorce, quite often you’ll find that people find themselves in substantially better place after divorce. And quite often, you know, within six months to a year after a divorce, I’ll talk to my clients and they’ll just say, this is such a breath of fresh air. I just never realized how unhappy I was. You know, people have valid fears of before they get divorced, but the divorce, um, quite often is necessary and, and, um, um, can solve a lot of the problems and people can find themselves living much better lives. You know, the, the, the divorce statistics in this country, I, I’ve heard anywhere from 50 to 60% of marriages end in divorce.

Mark Smith:And I think that’s probably true. I, you know, as a, as an attorney that does divorce, I suppose I have a vested interest in that to a certain degree, but, but more importantly, I think that a lot of marriages end in divorce because they need to. Um, I think that there’s a higher rate of divorce now because people are starting to realize that they don’t have to stay in bad marriages that are all the alternatives. And quite often those alternatives, no matter how challenging it can be a better life than staying in a bad marriage. And I think that’s something that people have to recognize that if they’re in a bad marriage and there’s a lot of hostility, alive unhappiness, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a marriage of domestic violence. It can simply be a marriage where people are very unhappy. Quite often. Not only are the parents unhappy, but the children will be unhappy as well. So, uh, we do have a lot of divorce in this country, but maybe that divorce level was necessary in the newsroom.

Neil Howe:Yeah. Well, in the intro we said that, uh, you know, you do the event domestic violence cases as well. Is that something that’s is a relatively prominent,

Mark Smith:you know, it is in my practice. Um, there’s, I, I’ve talked to other divorce lawyers who have never dealt with a case that deals with domestic violence, but I, you know, I’ve dealt with many, many cases, a substantial percentage of cases in my office deal with domestic violence. And I’m sure that, that I’m getting referrals from people because of that reason. Um, it, it is a difficult to challenge to ensure the safety of both parties. Um, but it can be done. Um, a lot of people, especially women who are in marriages that involved domestic violence, are extremely fearful about the ramifications and the outcomes that are possible when, when they have to get divorced. But there are many, many devices and, and, and alternatives and methods of relief to ensure that, uh, women in particular can get divorced without having to put their safety an issue and without having to put their entire life in jeopardy. It’s, uh, I’ve, I’ve always been impressed with the courage of the women that I deal with who, who are leaving marriages that involve domestic violence. It is a grave brave decision, but there are many attorneys out here that can help them, uh, me being one of them and, and, um, I find domestic violence to be particularly rewarding to help people out of, uh, relationships that do become that damaging to them psychologically and physically. Hmm.

Neil Howe:Mark, what would you say is the biggest misconception when it comes to divorce?

Mark Smith:The biggest misconception about divorce? There’s, there’s several. Um, a lot of parents come in and ask me about full custody. I think that they think that there’s some arrangement whereby a judge will say, you get the children and the other side does not. The fact of the matter is is that, is that, and then we recognized is that children really need both parents. Um, and even if you have a PA, a husband for example, that’s abusive to the wife, that doesn’t mean necessarily that he’s a bad parent. So what we have to talk about is, is is the right way to do it? There’s really no such thing as full custody. What we’re really talking about is how do we do decision making? How do we divide the time for the children with each parent and how, and how do we ensure that there’s a good relationship with both, both parents for the children, more specifically with the children, with the parents.

Mark Smith:So there really is no such thing as full custody. Um, in fact, we changed the words that we use because words have power. We no longer, even in Colorado used the word custody. We talk about allocation of parental responsibilities. We talk about the decision making, whether it’s sole or joint. We don’t use the word visitation. We talk about parenting types. So we changed the way we think by the words that we use. So I think the first misconception that people should get over is this concept that there’s ever full custody. There’s ever an arrangement where the children will never see the other parent. That’s rarely, rarely the case. The other, um, misconception that I deal with quite frequently is this idea that there’s some magical age that children reach when they get to make their own decisions and they get to decide where they’re going to live their children for a reason.

Mark Smith:We, we, we are the guardians, we are their parents. They never really get to choose. Um, in Colorado at 18, you can choose where you want to reside, but at that point you’re effective in adults. Anyways, up until that point, the decisions about where they live are supposed to be made between the parties and or the courts. So we never let shown decide the custodial arrangements. We do start to listen to them. The two experts that I talked about previously, the CFI child family investigator and the parental responsibilities evaluations, both consider the children’s desires as part of their decision making in terms of the environment and the arrangement apparent. The time arrangement that kids will have with each parent. And that’s also part of the statute that we have to consider the children’s wishes if they are open up to express those. But there’s never a situation where children ever decide. So mark,

Neil Howe:there’s somebody listening to this is, you know, in the need of a divorce attorney, uh, what kind of questions should they be asking that attorney to make sure that they are finding the right one for them?

Mark Smith:Uh, that’s a very, very good question. The best method of finding an attorney to start with is always referral. If you know someone who has had a good experience with an attorney, that’s always the best choice. Yeah, it’s tougher to find someone, uh, you know, cold calling or finding attorneys. I think the other thing that you have to do is you have to interview attorneys to determine whether or not it’s a good fit. Uh, it’s a very intimate arrangement between, in counsel and I think that there has to be a substantial level of rapport between the p the client and the council. And I think that you can find that. But I think that in some respects you have to interview a few returns. Uh, you know, you’re interviewed two or three and you can start to narrow down what is a good relationship. Obviously the retainers, the hourly cost of the attorney is very important.

Mark Smith:How they build what they build for. Um, it’s also important to know if an a how an attorney responds to the specific issues. In your case, as much as we use a very similar parenting plans to divide children’s time with parents, as much as we see the division of assets, every case is unique. And I think that a client has to feel competent in talking to an attorney. That attorney is specifically interested in the details of their life as opposed to any sort of cookie cutter answer that we’ll all, that they would apply to every case. So I think that what questions a client can ask, um, are important. But I think asking several attorneys and getting the assessment of each attorney can help you narrow down which attorney is the right ones to choose.

Neil Howe:Hmm. Very good. Well mark, we have definitely covered a lot of information here today, but if people have more questions and want to reach out to you, what is the best way for them to do that?

Mark Smith:Oh, I, I have, uh, you know, I like to think I’m a child of the electronic age. My, my phone number (303) 809-7715. We also do an enormous amount through email, which is a Smith associates pc@gmail.com. We will respond to most people within about a six to 24 hours depending upon whether I’m hearing or not. Um, but yeah, they can contact me by phone, email or they could come by the office.

Neil Howe:Well mark, this is been great. Like I said, a, there’s lots of information that you’ve given that there’s definitely lots to consider when you are contemplating a divorce and you want to make sure that you do it properly and get it done right the first time so that you’re not coming back and trying to get it right the second time. Uh, but, uh, mark, I appreciate you are talking with Mark Smith here with Smith and associates, PC in Aurora, Colorado. Mark, thanks very much for being my guests on the trust factor radio today. Neil, thank you very much.

Mark Smith:Two distinct pleasure talking to you

Neil Howe:and to our listening audience. If you like what you hear, hit that like button and share and we’ll see you next time on the show.

Mark Smith, has represented numerous clients in Colorado since 1992.

From 1986 to 1993, Smith gained expertise as a paralegal before returning to law school in 1990. In 1994, he was admitted to practice law in Colorado and then in Minnesota. In 1996 he founded Smith & Associates.